Tunisia extremists firebomb home of 'blasphemous' TV station head

Tunisian extremists firebombed the home of a TV station chief Friday, hours after militants protesting its broadcast of a film they say violated Islamic values clashed with police in the streets of Tunis.

Policemen arrest one of the 300 Tunisian Salafists who took part in the attack of Nessma headquarters Photo: AFP/GETTY

About a hundred men, some of whom threw Molotov cocktails, lay siege to the home of Nabil Karoui, the head of the private television station Nessma late on Friday, the station reported in its evening news bulletin.

Karoui's family had only just escaped, the news presenter said.

Sofiane Ben Hmida, one of Nessma's star reporters, told AFP the station chief was not at home when the attack on his house took place at around 7:00pm (1800 GMT). But his wife and children were.

About 20 of the protesters had managed to get inside.

"The family managed to get out the back and are safe. The attackers wrecked the house and set it on fire," he added.

Interior ministry spokesman Hichem Meddeb told AFP around a hundred people had turned up outside the house, forced their way inside, broken the windows and torn out two gas pipes. Five people had been arrested, he added.

This was the most serious incident yet in an escalating series of protests against the station's broadcast of "Persepolis" on October 7.

The globally acclaimed animated film on Iran's 1979 revolution offended many Muslims because it depicts an image of God as an old, bearded man. All depictions of God are forbidden by Islam.

Earlier on Friday, police fired tear gas at some demonstrators as some of the protests against the station degenerated.

The main demonstration began peacefully at a central Tunis mosque after Friday prayers, with men and women chanting slogans against Nessma. Thousands of people, many of them Salafist Muslims, were present.

But traders shut up shop as the group approached government offices and the rally grew tense as protesters approached the Kasbah area of Tunis where the main government buildings are located.

"Separate! Mixing of men and woman is prohibited," shouted a Salafist as he divided the protesters.

Then a group of men, some carrying flags of the Salafist party, marched towards police barricades set up by the seat of the government, provoking the first volleys of tear gas.

Police pursued some protesters into nearby Independence Square, while other demonstrators took refuge in a local mosque.

There were other protests elsewhere in the capital.

Those protesting were mainly Salafist Muslims, but they were joined by groups of youths with no obvious allegiance, who in some places began tearing up posts and throwing stones at the police.

The officers replied with volleys of tear gas.

It was the second time protesters had demonstrated against the station this week. On Sunday, Tunisian police broke up a crowd of angry Salafists intent on attacking Nessma offices.

Already on Tuesday, Karoui had apologised for having broadcast the film, but most mosque preachers devoted their Friday sermons to the issue. After Friday night's attack on his home, the station accused some imams of having incited believers to target station staff.

Barely a week away from historic polls on October 23, the first since the overthrow in January of president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, the protests have increased fears of unrest.